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A former nurse and manager at the North Bay Regional Health Centre faces several fraud charges following an eight month police investigation.

North Bay Police Service finished its internal investigation on Dec. 19 and charged Carla Ring.

Ring faces charges of fraud over $5,000, theft over $5,000, fraud under $5,000, theft under $5,000 and one count of criminal breach of trust. She is scheduled to appear in court in January.

Kate Fyfe, the hospital's vice president of corporate services and chief financial officer, said concerns were raised in March about irregularities with patient funds.

“We moved quickly to conduct our own investigation. An internal investigation took place and we dismissed her. We then notified police (in April) and they started to conduct their own investigation.”

Fyfe said the hospital holds money in trust for mental health patients and is available to staff to support those patients.

She said a patient can withdraw money themselves, depending on their level of capacity or a nurse can go with the patient to make the transaction.

Fyfe said nurses can also withdraw money on behalf of the patient depending on the need or activity.

However, Fyfe said, this situation was different.

“The withdrawals didn't make sense and the activity was unusual, which led us to dig deeper.”

She said it was difficult for the hospital to try and determine the amount that was lost, however the hospital aired on the side of caution and any transaction the accused was involved in with no receipts was considered a loss for the patient.

Fyfe said an external firm was hired to help the hospital tally the loss.

“We've notified patients or their decision-makers of the situation and the steps in place to repay,” Fyfe said, adding reimbursement came out of hospital funds and all patients were paid back.

“Families were concerned, but appreciated our approach and how quickly we acted.”

Fyfe said the hospital hired a forensic auditor to review the hospital's system and provide recommendations.

She said one suggestion was to lower the amount of money patients can withdraw.